Subscribers face an increasingly large number of choices for entertainment programming, which is delivered over networks such as cable TV systems, over-the-air broadcast systems, and switched digital access systems which use telephone company twisted wire pairs for the delivery of signals.
Cable television service providers have typically provided one-way broadcast services but now offer high-speed data services and can combine traditional analog broadcasts with digital broadcasts and access to Internet web sites. Telephone companies can offer digital data and video programming on a switched basis over digital subscriber line technology. Although the subscriber may only be presented with one channel at a time, channel change requests are instantaneously transmitted to centralized switching equipment and the subscriber can access the programming in a broadcast-like manner. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer Internet access and can offer access to text, audio, and video programming which can also be delivered in a broadcast-like manner in which the subscriber selects “channels” containing programming of interest. Such channels may be offered as part of a video programming service or within a data service and can be presented within an Internet browser.
Along with the multitude of programming choices which the subscriber faces, subscribers are subject to advertisements, which in many cases subsidize or pay for the entire cost of the programming. While advertisements are sometimes beneficial to subscribers and deliver desired information regarding specific products or services, consumers generally view advertising as a “necessary evil” for broadcast-type entertainment.
In order to deliver more targeted programming and advertising to subscribers, it is necessary to understand their likes and dislikes to a greater extent than is presently done today. Systems which identify subscriber preferences based on their purchases and responses to questionnaires allow for the targeted marketing of literature in the mail, but do not in any sense allow for the rapid and precise delivery of programming and advertising which is known to have a high probability of acceptance to the subscriber. In order to determine which programming or advertising is appropriate for the subscriber, knowledge of that subscriber and the subscriber product and programming preferences is required.
Specific information regarding a subscriber's viewing habits or the Internet web sites they have accessed can be stored for analysis, but such records are considered private and subscribers are not generally willing to have such information leave their control. Although there are regulatory models which permit the collection of such data on a “notice and consent” basis, there is a general tendency towards legal rules which prohibit such raw data to be collected.